


Two Many Surprises for One Day

by withaflashoflove



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-09-23 04:48:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9641357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withaflashoflove/pseuds/withaflashoflove
Summary: Iris has a pregnancy scare the same day Barry wants to propose.





	

She paces impatiently, back and forth, in the kitchen for minutes on end. She's nervous, on edge even, the loft seemingly too small for her feet, their movement not keeping up with her thoughts.

"Iris?" Barry shouts as soon as he opens the door.

She doesn't still though, barely even registering that someone's in the loft with her. Her mind is heavy, replaying the possibilities over and over again. So she's a week late. It's not bad, it's not like she hadn't had a late period before. It's just this time around, it's accompanied by a weird mood that changes every day.

She wasn't focusing on her work. She wasn't sleeping well. She was too cold one second and too hot the next. Iris didn't know what was going on with her body, and she expected the worst.

"Iris. Iris, hey." Barry briskly walks over to her and stops her in place, his hands tight on her arms. "What's going on? Are you okay?" He questions her, panic in his eyes.

"No," she replies hastily. "Well, maybe," she modifies her sentence. "No no, I don't know, Barry, I don't know!"

"Okay, just breathe."

Barry rubs her arms back and forth and pulls her close to his chest. Her own hands come to grip his back and she basks in his embrace, his steady breath helping her steady her own, his arms safe around her body, his strength keeping her standing when she feels like shrinking into a ball.

He presses a kiss to the top of her head. "I'm here, it's okay."

In her mind, alarms are going off. But they're not going off one at a time, it's more like 20 at once with no break period for recovery. She has a pounding headache, one she's sure is only made worse by the stress she's piling on to herself.

_She can't be pregnant._

Her and Barry had barely even discussed the idea of kids. They knew they wanted them, but it was definitely not  _now._ A distant future that she's supposed to have with him seemed to be hitting her present life hard, and she wanted to run or scream or curl up in bed and never leave!

"Oh god."

Abruptly, Iris pushes herself off Barry and steps away.

He stares at her, unsure whether to pull her back in or stay where he's currently at.

When Barry got her messages earlier in the day, he'd been so concerned. _I need you to meet me at home as soon as you get a break_ , she'd sent him about an hour earlier. He was in the middle of a meeting when he saw it and couldn't leave right away, which definitely wasn't helping his nerves.

The thing is, today was supposed to be a really happy day.

Like rainbows opening up the sky happy.

That's the way he set it up.

Iris was supposed to go to work and not come home until 8, after her and Joe and Wally went to the new play Barry had gotten them tickets for.

When Iris questioned him as to why he wasn't going with them, he told her he had a CSI Conference that he couldn't miss. In reality, those three hours were supposed to give him the perfect amount of time to light up their loft with candles, fill it up with her favorite aromas, cover the floor with rose petals, cook her the best dinner she'd ever eaten and then...

well..

calm his nerves probably...

remind himself over and over that he could do the thing...

and then do the actual thing...

the thing being... ask her to marry him.

They'd discussed marriage earlier. Both of them wanted to, and Iris wasn't shy about how possessive she was of him, not that he'd ever complain about it, not that he didn't milk it every second. She'd definitely dropped hints before, little phrases like  _when we get married_  that made his heart flutter and made him want to spin her around and never let her go.

A yes was guaranteed, he was sure of it. But he wanted to ask, wanted to make the whole thing official.

They'd been dating for a year, it felt like it was time. Truthfully, for him, it was time the moment he first kissed her, but that would've been rushing it, maybe, a little, and that was in the past and today was in the now and he's supposed to propose, but instead, he's watching her resort to pacing again, with a look of horrid fear on her face at 1 o'clock in the afternoon and Barry feels almost as sick as she looks.

"Iris, you have to talk to me."

The ring in his back pocket rests heavy. Barry didn't even bother leaving it at home today, wanting nothing to spoil this surprise. Knowing his girlfriend, she was too observant for his liking and would probably unravel his entire plan the second before it was put into play.

"I'm..." she starts. But then she stops. Iris finally comes to a halt in front of him, her eyes meeting his. "I thought we were careful, I really did!"

"About what?" He searches her eyes for answers.

She throws up her hands. "Everything! Birth control, protection, being safe! We followed protocol step by step!"

"Step by ste..."

Barry's voice trails off.  _Oh god._

"Barry. I'm late. I'm 7 days late."

He nods his head slowly, the words not finding their way out.

"And it's been such a weird week and you know how moody I've been lately!"

He nods again, registering everything she's saying.

"...what if I'm pregnant.."

He wants to faint.

Pregnant.

_Pregnant._

A baby?

Their... _their baby._

"Barry?" Iris looks at him questioningly, as she notices the color disappear from his face. He looks like he's halfway in between dropping to the floor and vibrating uncontrollably and she doesn't know how she'll even begin to calm him when she can barely keep herself calm.

One of them has to be sane through this, and it's definitely not going her.

He reaches back for the armrest of the couch, leans on it it for support.

"Barry?" Iris calls again.

He looks up to lock eyes with her.

And as shocked as he is and absolutely confused, he really really  _really_ can't help the small smile that forms on his lips.

"Pregnant?" he whispers.

Seeing him smile makes her heart flip.

Immediately, she feels a sense of warmth overcome her and Iris finally gets a grip on her nerves, which dissipate the more she looks at him.

"You're...you're happy." She means to ask it, but instead, it comes out as a content statement.

Barry nods his head. "Is that bad?"

Her smile grows.

He reaches for her and takes her hand in his as he pulls her to stand between his legs. Barry slowly tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Do you want to be pregnant?" he asks, sincerely, the smile plastered on his face.

"I don't know, I don't," Iris answers honestly, her hands curling around the lapels of his sweater, "it's all so unexpected."

"I can go buy a pregnancy test."

"What if it's positive?"

"It might not be," he reassures her. Though at this point, he's not sure whether that's really reassurance because he can't read her face. Barry doesn't know whether she wants a baby right now.

She's definitely focused on her job, covering all the major stories of the city. Ever since Savitar's death prophecy, she's taken a more active role in her journalism that didn't stop once Savitar was defeated. And Barry's been so proud of her since. He was even sure the piece she was currently working on, the one she'd been compiling evidence and witness statements for for the past months would secure her her first Pulitzer. 

A baby wouldn't help with her career. It wouldn't help with his either.

But maybe...they'd be able to make it work.

"Do you want it to be positive?" Her voice breaks him out of his thoughts, as small as it sounds.

It's then he realizes Iris is as scared about being pregnant as she his about his reaction to it.

He leans up to kiss her, captures her lips between his and holds them there for a few seconds. When he pulls away, he rests their foreheads together. "I want whatever you want."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," he smiles.

"I don't know if I'm ready for a baby."

"I'm no expert," Barry pulls back to look at her, "but I don't think anyone's ready for a baby, Iris."

She sighs. "I just...it's so soon. We're not even married, Bear."

 _Married_.

Right.

The thing he was going to ask her about tonight.

Suddenly, he can feel the ring in his pocket again and Barry's doesn't know whether pulling it right now and getting down on one knee would be the solution to her fears.

Instead, he settles for, "we can get married."

She ducks her head.

"You don't care, do you?" Barry asks, quizzically.

When Iris doesn't look at him, he brings a hand to her chin and gently forces her eyes back to his. "Iris."

"You know I want to marry you -"

_Now he definitely does._

He smiles, doesn't say a word, but holds her tight and warm.

"- I just don't want us to get married because we have to."

"You mean so Joe doesn't kill me?"

Iris laughs. "Basically."

He lets out a laugh of his own. 

"Okay, okay..." Barry rubs her arms again, "let's take it one step at a time, yeah?"

She slowly nods her head. He's right, she knows this. It's too soon to be thinking about what's to happen after the fact, when she doesn't even know if she's pregnant right now. 

"I'll go get a test."

* * *

He came back to her in record speed, the one test he was supposed to get turning into five somehow. But this was better, the more the better.

Now, she's holding two of the tests in her hand and looking at him.

"Are you sure you don't want another brownie before we see the results?" he asks.

"I think I've already eaten 10. Not sure if this potential baby likes brownies as much as I do."

"I'm sure it'll love everything you do, Iris."

Iris lets the two tests drop back onto the kitchen counter. When Barry looks at her with a questioning face, she just shakes her head, a silent plea for him not to ask. Instead, she just curls into his chest again, and he holds her like he did earlier.

"You look," she says into his chest.

"Are you sure?"

"Mhm. I don't think I can stomach it."

Reluctantly, he reaches behind her for the tests, still keeping one arm around her back. But before he grabs one, he drops his arm.

 "What do I say when I see it?" he asks in a hushed tone.

"I dunno."

"Iris..."

"The truth, the truth would be good."

"How about," he gently pulls back, "we look together?"

"Okay."

She hesitantly agrees to it. Truthfully, at this point, she doesn't know which sign she wants to get. She just wants this entire thing to be over, the knot in her stomach getting the best of her. 

She knows now isn't the time for a baby.

Not with both her and Barry's jobs, not with their expenses, not with timing, nothing really.

There are more cons than pros. They'd have to baby-proof the entire loft. Maybe they'd even have to sell the loft and move into a bigger house, a house that's more baby-friendly. They'd probably have to buy an SUV and Iris would eventually have to become a soccer mom and she's imagining all the crying and screaming - some of it the baby's, most of it her and Barry's - and all the messes they'd have to clean and the diapers they'd have to change. And she'd probably have to take time off work, even if she didn't want to, just based on the inevitable insistence of her dad...

Which was another thing. They'd have to tell everyone. And eventually people would want to poke and rub her tummy, and she really didn't want anyone touching her anywhere who wasn't Barry Allen.

And she'd get so big. Which meant no more boxing classes with Linda. No more cardio workouts with Wally. No more drinking with Cisco.

It was too big of a price to pay, really.

But even with all of that, how can she ever be upset about carrying the baby she created with the love of her life?

"Ready?" Barry asks.

She's not. But she just nods her head, leans up to give him a quick peck before turning around.

"Ready."

"Okay," Barry softly rubs her back, "on three, you turn the left one over and I'll turn the right one over."

"On three," she repeats.

"One..."

Iris reaches for the left test.

"Two..."

Barry reaches for the right.

They take one final look at each other, before shifting their attention back to the tests.

"Three."

They flip them both.

One strip on both appears on the screen.

 _Not pregnant_.

She lets out a sigh.

"No baby," Barry whispers into her neck.

"Right," she confirms, letting the reality sink in.

She's not pregnant.

* * *

"All of them are negative," Barry shouts from the bathroom.

Iris sits on a stool on the counter, stuffing another brownie into her mouth.

She reminds herself this is a good thing, and that even if she's a little disappointed, now is probably not the time for any of this.

"Iris?"

Barry comes to stand behind her. "You've almost eaten the whole tray," he laughs.

"Good brownies," she replies.

Barry kisses the top of her head and spins the stool towards him. "Are you okay?"

Truthfully, no, she's not okay. A lot happened today and she still has to process everything and can't even wrap her head around this. What got to her most, though, through all of this was how much she didn't mind having a baby. Even with the timing and everything else, she was weirdly at ease.

A big part of that was thanks to the man standing in front of her.

Iris grins and cups his cheeks, pulling him down to kiss him properly. "I am. Promise."

"Good," he says, stealing another kiss, "that's good."

He steps away and sits on the stool next to her, reaching for his own brownie, one of the last two left.

She stares at him for a couple seconds. When he turns around to face her and gives her a confused look, she brushes it off. "You just seemed happy, that's all."

Barry smiles. "Can you blame me?"

"Hmm?"

"You'd be pregnant with our human, Iris...a human we made together. Half me. Half you." He grins and sets the brownie down, reaches for her hand instead. "I know my future is you. Everything with you makes me happy."

"Shut up," she scrunches her nose.

And he knows she's touched, by the way her eyes glisten, by the way her shoulders lose a little of the tension they were holding.

He doesn't know if it's the right time to do it.

Thinks maybe there should be some sort of recovery period before he surprises her with anything else today.

But her grip on his hand and her eyes dancing with his makes him not want to wait a second longer.

"You know, I think I can miss my conference tonight."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Barry nods, "I took the rest of the day off, everything included."

"So you'll come to the play with us?"

"If you want to go."

She reaches for his other hand and pulls him off the chair, walking them both back towards the couch.

When he sits down, she eases herself onto his lap, kisses the skin right below his left ear, and brushes a few stray strands of his brown hair back in place. "It'll be fun, just the four of us."

Barry shuffles his feet.

Before he can even process his actions, he finds himself reaching backwards, the cold metal making his fingers twitch.

"You okay, Bear?" Iris questions him when he doesn't respond.

It's then that he takes her left hand in his own. Slowly, Barry leans in and kisses her forehead. 

She closes her eyes at the gesture. It's an intimate thing he does a lot, something she's been mimicking lately, something that makes her feel so close to him.

When Barry kisses both of her eyelids, she lets out a content sigh.

And then she feels it.

His hand on her finger, slipping something cold on.

When she opens her eyes, his hand isn't there anymore. But she sees a diamond in its place, resting quietly on her ring finger, staring her in the eyes.

Her eyes alternate between the ring and Barry.

"I wanted to ask you," Barry explains, "after the play. It was supposed to be a lot more romantic, but with the events of the day, I figured this would work too."

She gapes at him.

"I'm sorry if it's too much," he quickly elaborates, "I know you've had a lot to deal with, I know.

But you kind of said yes, earlier, you said you wanted to marry me...and this is just a ring as confirmation."

She still doesn't speak.

"Really, if you don't want it right now, I can take it back!" Now he's worried, all the nervous energy rushing back to him, and his thighs shake restless which makes Iris shake in the process. "I just....I jus-"

Luckily, she doesn't make him explain anymore, instead crashing her lips to his.

Iris kisses him fiercely, both of her hands coming to grip his hair, as she presses herself firmly against him. Barry holds her tight, his own arms wrapping around her body, one hand on her thigh, the other on her back. 

"Iris, Iris.."

She doesn't let him finish his sentence. Instead, she pulls him backwards, pulls him so that he's covering her body laying on the couch.

Both of her legs come to wrap around his waist.

"Hey -"

This time, he forces himself away from her kisses, separates them just enough to where he can see her face clearly. "Iris."

"I love you.

Barry Allen, I love you, I love you, I love you."

Barry smiles.

"So that's a yes?" he asks playfully.

She nods. Doesn't say another word as she pulls him back down towards her.

And she wears the ring the whole day, hugs her dad and brother when her and Barry tell them the news, leaves it on while holding her  _fiance's_ hand during the entire play.

When they're cuddled up together in bed, she thinks someday, they'll relive this day, the same exact events repeating themselves, except maybe that time they'll both have rings on and the test - or all five of them - will read positive.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I am very proud of that pun in the title :p


End file.
